by Samantha Terrazas

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

Every single day Americans throw away valuable resources which have the potential to be recycled and reused. According to an MSW (Minnesota Solid Waste) Statewide composition study, conducted in 2002, 72% of the waste being dumped into landfills could have been recycled or composted (Miller, Countryman, Fridell,). Waste tires prove to be a growing problem as well, with approximately one used tire being produced per person each year, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Blagojevich, 2005). This indicates that over 300 million used tires will be produced in America in the year 2007. Located in California is a company by the name of Rubbersidewalks Inc.; it produces sidewalk panels out of 100% recycled tire crumb rubber. This new and innovative idea, offering many benefits to the communities it serves, is currently being utilized in over 60 cities across the United States (Amadon, 2007). The government would be extremely wise to start investing in these environmentally friendly sidewalks which are proven to be more durable and cost effective than concrete.

With nearly 1 million 800 thousand tons of tires being discarded each year, there must be a better solution for all this waste. Used tires present several problems to communities such as supplying a breeding habitat for Asian tiger mosquitoes and the possibility of creating horrendous, detrimental fires. Asian tiger mosquitoes, which find breeding ground in used tires, are responsible for the spread of several problems including yellow fever, dengue, LaCrosse encephalitis and dog heartworm(Lyon, Berry). Scientists' blame the North American existence of Asian tiger mosquitoes on the 4.5 million tires that were imported from Asia from 1983 to 1985 (Lyon, Berry). The tires that were originally taken to Huston, Texas were then transferred to several other areas the United States. The Asian tiger mosquito can now be found as far north as Chicago. According to Ohio State University, over 60% of the LaCrosse encephalitis cases in Ohio can be linked back to used tires (Lyon, Berry). The continual spread of mosquitoes through transferring tires is a problem in and of itself; aside from that matter is the potential risk for hazardous blazing fires. Fires produced by these discarded used tires burn very hot and can contaminate the air, land and water in surrounding areas (Blagojevich). Because the fires burn at such extreme temperatures, these fires are very difficult to put out. Once the use tires

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